Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Litchfield Mayor Doug Barden on the 3% residential rate increase in the region, and what's happening with the Telstra phone tower

Transcript

Litchfield Mayor Doug Barden on the 3% residential rate increase in the region, and what's happening with the Telstra phone tower · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that Litchfield Council has handed down its draft
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: municipal plan for the coming year, forecasting one fourteen percent
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: increase in budget revenue backed by an increase in council rates.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: So residential rates in the area are set to increase
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: by three percent that's around fifty five cents per week.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Now joining me is the Litchfield Council mayor Doug Barden.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Doug.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie and listeners. And firstly, i'd like his support,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: key comments and reference to the fire brigade and Palmerston
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Rural Fire Brigade. We one hundred percent agreed with Jerry
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and Sezia. Yeah.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Look, and this is the thing, isn't it Doug? It
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: does seem as so most out in the rural area.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Going hang on a second, why's the fire station just
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: been called Palmerston and not Palmerston and Regional or Palmerston
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and Rural or the rural fire station.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Katie, and the same as the hospital. We
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: would have liked to have called it the your previous
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: commentator on four point nine, what.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Was his name, Pete Davies, Yeah, yeah, Pete Davies.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: We would like to have called the Palmerston and Regional
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Hospital the Pete Davy Hospital, And I think we could
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: have done something similar to the to the that the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: new fire should be, which should be called the Lichfield
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: fiber G, Aske said earlier.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and look, I know Pete Davies thought so
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: hard for that Parmeston add In hospital. That that hospital
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: out in Palmerston was something he was so very passionate about.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: They did name the auditorium in his honor, which was
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: really which was a really lovely thing to do. But yeah,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: with you know, with this, with the fire station, I
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: reckon it could gain a bit of momentum by the
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sounds of it, Doug, obviously, Jerry wood Kesey epiric. Now
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you and I'm assuming that the majority of council feel
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the same, not.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: The majority, All of the councilors fill the same and
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the whole council feel the same. That it could have
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: rural in the rural in the titles.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, Oh well, we'll keep talking about it, Doug. Let
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: us know if you know, if there is any sort
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of movement in that space, or if anybody else wants
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to come on air and have a chat about it
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: as well. I do want to ask. We know that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the new council has a new direction, how important was
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: it to get that budget right this year?
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Well, as we said at the beginning, yes, we are
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: having a three percent increase where the previous municipal plan
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: had predictions of it being ten percent. So we were
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: able to keep that down as much as we could
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: also like to in re like to in our municipal plan.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: On page twelve we talk about two two stategic advocacy
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: projects being being Holston Kwandi in working to develop those
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and also fread passports recreationary derves. I know on page
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: five of the paper that that the that all the
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: governments are supporting Middle Arm and the one of the
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: one of the parties, one of the major parties put
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a pledge out there for for ten million dollars for
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Fred's pass and we would like to have the other
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: other all parties and independents be the same.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And so Doug with the with the rate increase, how
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: have you managed to have it go up that three
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: percent rather than the ten percent that had initially obviously
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: been flagged.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: The new Council believes that we can that we can
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: we can say costs make savings and costings we also
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: have and we're also spending a lot of money. Yeah,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: we've also had a lot of fun with a lot
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: of grants long term, the from from government which has
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: gone into the road such as the Mingo Roads. We
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: put twenty one million dollars worth of roads in the
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: last last four years, which has been fantastic, and we're
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: and we're hoping to do the same. We're spending six
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: point five million dollars on capital works, doing one point
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: five million on road reseals, one point two million to
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: upgrade our gravel road to sealed, seven hundred thousand on
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: drainage upgrade on Girwene Road and Stoftwell Road, five hundred
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: thousand on road road safety upgrades on white Wood Road
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: and Waden Road, seven fifty on sky Creek Road healing,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: and three hundred thousand on gravel surface ring nels.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: So certainly plenty happening out there. Doug, one of our
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: callers has just called through and asked any idea why
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Power Road is still closed. It seems the builders walked
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: off the job. I don't know what the situation is
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: out there.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, the contractor has walked off the job and that's
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: in the hands of solicitors and we're putting that out
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: for tender at the moment, and hopefully we'll have a
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: start on that in the very very near future.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, So, so hopefully it will get back underway very soon.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah. Unfortunately, unfortunately it took quite a while for
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the for the road to be handed back to Council,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: and it wasn't in our control. We had very small
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: We couldn't do a great deal right until until the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: lawyer has got things sorted out. Yep.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Right, Well, we'll keep an eye on that one, Doug.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Another one that I'm keen to just get a bit
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of an update from you on is a replacement of
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the telstraphone hour that you and I had spoken about
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: a little while back. How is it going. Is it
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: still moving forward in that same location or is it
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: looking as though the location is going to move.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Hopefully it will move. As all things with councils, things
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: go very very slowly. And Council is assisting Telster and
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: finding an alternative site and investigate the options of terminating
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: the lease with Telstra so that it's under investigation, but
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: of of both moving the alternative sight to to hope. Well,
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: there's two or three sites that could be I'd like
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: to note that we did exactly the same lease out
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: at the end of Girween Road and Herbert and I
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: had five or six people at the markets congratulating us
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: for that site. But we are working with the community
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to try and sort this problem out.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, well and yeah, and hopefully we'll be able to
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: get a bit of an update I'm assuming from the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: from Telstra as well. Doug, we really appreciate your time
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: this morning. We are going to have to leave it there.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: We've got such a busy hour lined up. Thanks so
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: much for coming on the show and having a.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Chat with me. And I'd also like to thank Kesier
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: for her comments and reference to the boundary changes.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Intention Cancel has no intention of changing its boundaries and
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: we have no intention of giving giving any land of
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: a either. It'sink it's going to be a big debate
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: for another day.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I reckon it's going to be, Doug. So we might
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: even try to get you and Keys here and you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: some of the reps from from out at Dundee and
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: various other locations on the show over the next few weeks.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Can you keep in contact with us because I think
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: it is something that we're definitely going to need to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: talk more about and spend a bit more time on you.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Not a problem, and thank thank you Keasier for bringing
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: these things up.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's a good egg, that Kesiopuric. Thanks so much, Doug.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time this morning.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: And err Wood is too, Yeah he is.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: He certainly is, and he messaged me a bit earlier
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you Doug for having a chat with
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: us today. That is Doug Bardon there. He's the mayor
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: out there at Lichfield